The twentieth century gift book and its illustrators

Overall the thesis comprises three parts: gift book origins, artists and the technical and publishing processes behind such publications. In the latter is included a chapter on charity gift books: it appears here as such books were the technical results of the need to raise charitable funds, any other attraction they enjoyed was purely incidental. The aim of this thesis is to establish the gift book's worth within the context of its time; to replace the overall existing view of such publications as beneath serious consideration. It is hoped to cancel out the fashionable dismissal of gift books as travesties of book-making, achieved by constant reference to productions faithful to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Instead, the case is put for attention to the gift book as an individual, it is seriously hoped that this might prove possible.